A spacesuit contaminant removal system includes at least one membrane separator and a liquid sorbent circuit. The at least one membrane separator is configured to receive a spent air stream from a ventilation system of a spacesuit and absorb a contaminant from the spent air stream into a liquid sorbent. The at least one membrane separator is configured to discharge a clean air stream to the ventilation system and discharge the contaminant in a contaminant stream to a space environment using a vacuum of the space environment. The liquid sorbent circuit is configured to circulate the liquid sorbent through the at least one membrane separator.

A device for separating a gas, such as air, into components, includes a plurality of modules, each module having one or more polymeric membranes capable of gas separation. A set of valves, pipes, and manifolds together arrange the modules in one of two possible configurations. In a first configuration, the modules are arranged in parallel. In a second configuration, the modules are divided into two groups which are arranged in series. The device can be switched from parallel to series, or from series to parallel, simply by changing the positions of a small number of valves, typically three valves. The device can therefore produce gas either of higher purity, or moderate purity, depending on the settings of the valves. The device also includes improved structures for connecting the modules to inlet and outlet manifolds, and also includes devices for temporarily isolating one or more modules from the system.

The invention relates to a specific process and apparatus for separation of gas mixtures with reduced maintenance costs.

A computer-implemented method for designing and assessing the performance of a hollow fibre membrane contactor (MBC) in a natural gas sweetening process using a MBC model is described in an embodiment. The MBC model comprises model parameters, model equations and boundary conditions for calculating data associated with the natural gas sweetening process. The natural gas sweetening process comprises removal of acid gas from natural gas using a solvent comprising at least one component. The method comprises: (i) forming a regression model using empirical data; (ii) determining a Henry's constant of CO.sub.2 in the solvent using the regression model; (iii) inputting the determined Henry's constant of CO.sub.2 in the MBC model as one of the model parameters; and (iv) determining CO.sub.2 absorption in the solvent using the MBC model for designing and assessing the performance of the MBC.

An object of the present invention is to provide a separation membrane module in which an end member is prevented from coming out even at the occurrence of a reverse pressure or the like. The invention relates to a separation membrane module which is equipped with a cylinder-shaped housing and a tubular separation membrane and which takes out a fluid which has permeated the tubular separation membrane. An end pipe is connected to one end portion of the tubular separation membrane; the end pipe is supported by a support plate which is disposed so as to traverse the housing; and an end plug is connected to the other end portion of the tubular separation membrane. The separation membrane module is further equipped with a coming-out preventive member.

A method of generating oxygen depleted air on an aircraft, and an aircraft fuel tank inerting system. The method including the steps of passing a first proportion of air through an air pressure reduction device to produce a supply of reduced pressure air, passing a second proportion along one side of a membrane of an air separation module, exposing the other side of the membrane of the air separation module to the reduced pressure air, so that oxygen is extracted from the second proportion of air across the membrane and the air separation module exhausts oxygen depleted air for inerting an aircraft fuel tank.

A membrane system includes a first membrane and a second membrane. At a given temperature and pressure: the first membrane has a permeation rate for a first gas and a selectivity for a gas mixture comprising the first gas a second gas different from the first gas; the second membrane has a permeation rate for the first gas and a selectivity for the gas mixture; the permeation rate of the first membrane is greater than the permeation rate of the second membrane; and the selectivity of the second membrane is greater than the selectivity of the first membrane.

A device is disclosed for separating nitrogen and oxygen. The device includes an inlet in fluid communication with a source of a gas comprising oxygen and nitrogen, a membrane having a greater permeability to oxygen than to nitrogen. One side of the membrane is in fluid communication with the inlet, and the other side of the membrane is in fluid communication with an outlet for nitrogen-enriched gas. An outlet for oxygen-enriched gas is also in fluid communication with the first side of the membrane. A porous metal foam is disposed between the inlet and the membrane.

The invention is an improved method of making an improved carbon molecular sieve (CMS) membrane in which a precursor polymer (e.g., polyimide) is pyrolyzed at a pyrolysis temperature to form a CMS membrane that is cooled to ambient temperature (about 40° C. or 30° C. to about 20° C.). The CMS membrane is then reheated to a reheating temperature of at least 250° C. to 400° C. to form the improved CMS membrane. The CMS have a novel microstructure as determined by Raman spectroscopy. The improved CMS membranes have shown an improved combination of selectivity and permeance as well as stability for separating light hydrocarbon gas molecules such as C.sub.1 to C.sub.6 hydrocarbon gases (e.g., methane, ethane, propane, ethylene, propylene, butane, butylene).

Aircraft air separation systems having a compressed air source arranged to supply compressed air, an air separation module arranged to receive air from the compressed air source, the air separation module arranged to separate air into nitrogen enriched air and oxygen enriched air, wherein the nitrogen enriched air is supplied to a fuel tank of the aircraft, and a source of mixing air arranged to fluidly supply the mixing air at a location between the compressed air source and the air separation module such that the mixing air is selectively mixed with the compressed air to generate treated air that is supplied to the air separation module.